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Sport and Leisure

Football Flowers
A Canadian Football league player says he doesn't want more flowers. He missed a kick in a game. The Saskatchewan Roughriders did not make the Canadian Football League final because he missed the kick. Fans are sending him flowers. (Sport, football, obsessive fans, matching words and pictures, discussion, comprehension, understanding the main idea, ordering events, true or false, present continuous tense, sporting vocabulary.)Elementary

Global Bicycle Thieves
Amsterdam police will use bicycles equipped with hidden GPS transmitters to bait thieves and track them down in the latest effort to stamp out rampant bike theft. (Theft, GPS, Amsterdam, discussion, predicting from the headline, guessing meanings from context, mixed questions, completing a table of information, true, false or not given, words used as nouns and verbs, word search puzzle.)Intermediate

Telling A Story - Sport
This warmer helps students review the uses of different past tenses, gives them practice in ordering a text and presents them with sporting vocabulary and ideas.Intermediate

Brrrrrrrr!
Some 300 racers took the plunge in this year's world icepool swimming championship in the Arctic north of Finland. "The feeling is difficult to describe," said Kari Farlin, 45, dressed in a fur hat and swimsuit after racing in water of one degree Celsius. (Bizarre sports, championships and festivals, swimming, Finland, discussion, making questions, multiple choice questions, information exchange game - world championships, sport crossword, suffixes: -er and -or.)Pre-Intermediate

Is Ecotourism Too Popular?
Ecotourism is taking its toll on wildlife and may be endangering the survival of the very animals people are flocking to see, according to researchers. (Ecotourism and its impact on wildlife, animal quiz, talking about animals, predicting, completing a table, check your understanding, true, false or not given, the present continuous, jigsaw reading, crossword.)Intermediate

Losing Success
A Japanese racehorse, who is famous because she has lost so many races, lost another race. (Horseracing, winning and losing, Seabiscuit, sports, matching questions and answers, finding information, choose the best answer, discussion, positive adjectives, in or on (time), questionnaire on sports and famous sportspeople.)Elementary

Move Over, Karaoke
Frustrated actors have a new outlet for their creative urges that until now was only available to their singing cousins -- Movieoke, Karaoke's cinematic sibling. (Movieoke, entertainment, skimming, comprehension, completing a flowchart, true, false or not given, guessing vocabulary using the context, a,an,the, checking a summary, matching game - famous lines from movies, survey.) Intermediate

Dog Show Intrigue
Something sinister is troubling Britain's genteel world of dog-showing, and at the center of it all lies one question: Who called Mrs Mann a "puppy farmer?" Hate mail is circulating, threats have been made over the phone, Mann - the country's top show judge - has resigned. (Gossip and scandal, dogshows, brainstorming and planning, whisper campaign, understanding main idea, completing table of information, categorizing words, comprehension, interview, quotations about gossip, word formation.)Advanced

And the winner is...
A record crowd of more than 7,000 betters was expected to attend the 23rd annual Cockroach Races in Brisbane on Australia's national day, with some bringing their own runners and others buying competitors there. (Gambling, festivals, Australia, discussion, understanding text organization, question construction, true, false or not given, error recognition, crossword, questionnaire.)Upper-Intermediate

Athletes At Risk
Teens and young adults who regularly train and compete in sports are more than twice as likely to experience sudden death than non-athletes, according to a new study. (Athletes, heart conditions, prefixes: under-, non-, predicting, scanning, brainstorming, survey - leading a healthy lifestyle, vocabulary mime game - sports, information exchange.)Upper-Intermediate

Mirrors Not Required
Wall-to-wall mirrors in gyms and dance studios might stop women getting the exercise they need because women who work out in front of a mirror get discouraged and feel tired, Canadian researchers said. (Exercise and body image, Find Someone Who game, categorizing words, writing questions, crossword, completing sentences, true, false or not given, role play, discussion, group design project, superlative adjectives.)Upper-Intermediate

Everest Anniversary
As he marked the 50th anniversary of reaching the roof of the world, a now gray-haired and stooped Sir Edmund Hillary didn't care if he really was the first to the top of Mount Everest. (Everest, Mallory, Hillary and Norgay, mountain climbing, anniversary of historic climb, matching information, sequencing, scrambled questions, complete the sentences, comparing pictures, true, false or not given, crossword.)Intermediate

Top Dog May Be Cheat?
The canine winner of the world's biggest dog show may be stripped of its title after being accused of having a secret facelift, the Times newspaper reported. (Dog shows, cosmetic surgery, dog breeding, facial expressions, understanding text organization, jumbled questions, active and passive, matching terms and definitions, sentences game.)Intermediate

A Women's Sport
Legions of young and not-so-young women are plunging into waves at surf beaches worldwide, ending the male domination of a sport once restricted to Hawaiian kings. (Surfing, women's sports, comprehension, sentence completion, vocabulary in context, reading for specific information, true, false or not given, peer dictation, 'like' used to show similarity, role play.)Upper-Intermediate

New Pet Craze in Japan
Depressed by rising unemployment and an uncertain future, more and more Japanese are turning to an unlikely source of solace -- miniature pigs. (Unusual pets, scanning, matching details, true or false, choosing a headline, prefixes, percentages and numerical expressions.)Pre-Intermediate to Intermediate

Australians Slip Slop Slap
Helen Lawton-French remembers her childhood in Australia as a haze of sunshine, with weekends spent basking in the sun to get the perfect tan. But 20 years later, she's paying the price for her years of sun worship, joining the 280,000 Australians diagnosed with skin cancer each year. (Skin cancer and ways to avoid it, fill the gaps, matching information, true or false, reading for detail, listening and ordering information, prepositions, role play.)Upper-Intermediate

Free To Speed
A computer game company's offer to pay the speeding fines of all British drivers as part of an advertising promotion for a new motor racing game has been branded irresponsible and dangerous by the government. (Dangerous driving and speeding, scanning, true or false, direct and reported speech, the prefix 'ir-', discussion, writing a radio advertisement.)Upper-Intermediate

Too Much TV Bad For Kids?
Kids who spend more time watching TV--regardless of the content of the programming--are more likely to behave aggressively and have other types of social problems, a study has found. (Television watching and children, True, False or Not Given, writing questions, main idea, past simple, role-play, crossword.)Upper-Intermediate

A Very Long Ride
An American teacher has ridden a roller coaster for ten hours a day for the past three months to try to get a world record. (World records, listening for correct information, comprehension, collocations, irregular verbs, word find puzzle.)Elementary

A Baby's Name
An angry Italian mother has gone to court after her husband secretly named their newborn son after a prize-winning horse. (Naming children, sequencing, reading for detail, a / an / the, word search puzzle, discussion.)Elementary

Around The World In A Balloon
U.S. balloonist Steve Fossett ended his record-breaking solo round-the-world flight being dragged like a rag-doll through the dusty Australian outback. (World records, ballooning, ranking dangerous activities, comprehension, cloze listening, the structure 'by + -ing', planning a trip around the world.)Intermediate

Sun-Protected Students
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released new guidelines urging schools to try to protect children from excess sunlight to help prevent skin cancer later on in life. (The danger of the sun, scanning, use of the pattern 'urge + object + to + infinitive.)Pre-Intermediate

World Cup 'Sickness'
Warning! Soccer could be dangerous to your health. This lesson looks at heart attacks induced by watching critical match points, a website offering fans a way of missing work and a survey showing what fans are willing to give up in order to have their teams win the Soccer World Cup.) (Soccer, fans and health, Football World Cup, taking 'sick' days, making excuses, dictionary skills, multi-word verbs.)Intermediate

Noisy Yoga
A trendy London yoga institute known as a haven of peace and relaxation has come under attack from local residents -- for being too noisy. (Yoga, neighbors, summarizing, word forms, letter of complaint.)Intermediate

Karaoke
This is about new technology that could give even the most tone-deaf karaoke crooner perfect pitch. It adjusts sing-along music automatically to the pitch and tempo best-suited to an individual singer. Good news for singers and listeners! (Technology, music, entertainment, survey, role play, nouns used as adjectives.)Intermediate

Gooooooaaaaaal!
Soccer: "The referee found the ball at his feet in front of the goal, kicked it into the net, then signaled a goal." The referee later resigned. This is a strange sports story. (Soccer, sports, referees, umpires, judges, guessing vocabulary by context, using 'when' and 'while' to connect two actions in the past.)
Upper-Intermediate

Phone Home
A British tourist lost in the Australian bush in heavy rain and fog rang his father in England on his mobile phone to get help. (Rescue, mobile phones, using present tense and past tense.)Elementary

Tennis Love
Tennis chiefs could be forced to take action soon as the top women players continue to bring dogs to tournaments. (Sport, pets, summarizing.)Intermediate

Spiderman - third time lucky
Alain Robert scaled one of the tallest skyscrapers in Barcelona without a harness. (Strange hobbies, dangerous activities, superlatives, sentence reconstruction.)
Elementary

See You In Court
A longtime fan, disgruntled with the play his favourite hockey team, has sued the club's owner for breach of contract. (Sport, law suits, suing, money, cause and effect)
Intermediate

Running Man
Many people today want to be the best at something. Read through these recent news articles to get an idea of what sort of records people try to break. (world records, sauna, Everest, running around the world, muti-word adjectives)
Intermediate

Pocket Monsters
British teachers have accused the makers of Pokemon "fantasy monster" cards of fueling an obsession among children which has turned to violence. What do you think? (Pokemon cards, marketing, Britain, Puerto Rico, children, obsessions, trends, verb tense review: Present Simple/Simple Past/Present Perfect or Future)
Intermediate

Mixed Messages from Role Models.
Famous athletes are among the most important role models in the lives of American children, but the youngsters themselves recognize that their heroes' behavior is not always good.(Famous sports stars, teenagers, the USA, Synonyms, verbs to give instructions)
Upper-Intermediate

Something to whine about
DNA coding technology is being used by Australian wine producers to fight the growing theft and forgery of expensive premium wine brands. (Wine collecting, law, the second conditional, homophones.)Intermediate

Skiing in the Desert
Would you like to go skiing in summer? In the desert? Dubai is bringing in more than 400 tons of snow and ice to attract visitors to the Gulf Arab emirate. (Sport, tourism, using "Would you like to...")Elementary

Dangerous Activities
It may look pretty, but ballet is more like a contact sport when it comes to injury. (Risk, Sport, ballet, injury, relative clauses)
Intermediate

A 5-year-old Bungee Jumper
This article is about a man in France who has been stopped from getting his 5-year-old son into the record books as the youngest ever bungee jumper. (Parents' rights, children, dangerous activities, world records, sports, past simple and present perfect)
Elementary

Old Games Or Dangerous Games
An increasing number of Indonesians are taking a stand against digital games like Pokemon Go. They are encouraging children to play traditional toys like wooden spinning tops and bamboo pinwheels. Parents in the US who are part of a growing trend of people turning to 'tabletop games' as a social alternative to screen time.
Pre-Intermediate

A Wild Race
This is about the Eco-Challenge, billed as the world's toughest expedition race. Forget the Olympics... this is a REAL challenge! (Extreme sports, tough races, sport in wilderness areas, phrasal verbs.)
Upper-Intermediate

The Best Beard Show
More than 250 men met in southwest Germany for the 10th annual world beard and mustache championships. The men were from 15 different countries. (Beards, competitions, Past Simple.)Elementary

Meeting People
Are you shy? Can't make small talk or start a conversation? Get a dog. Why?? Read on and find out just how loyal and brave these wonderful creatures can be!!
(Dogs, meeting people, friends)
Intermediate

Academy Rewards
Academy Award organizers have come up with a novel idea for avoiding those boring Oscar acceptance speeches filled with "thank yous." Their solution: have the winners give two speeches--a short one and a long one. (Academy Awards, speeches.)Intermediate